Les Deux Magots

The story

The name Les Deux Magots came from an earlier novelty shop before the premises became a café in the 1880s. Facing the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, it developed into a legendary rendezvous for writers and artists and has awarded its own literary prize since 1933.

Why Les Deux Magots is iconic

Few terraces express literary Paris as completely, from its two namesake figures to the generations of writers who made it a cultural landmark.

Selected by Ernst Aben · Information reviewed July 2026